Monday, September 14, 2015

PALEA protests vs. PAL layoffs enters second week

Press Release

September 14, 2015

PALEA

For the second straight week, the Philippine Airlines
Employees Association (PALEA) is holding protests against the latest round of
mass layoffs at Philippine Airlines (PAL). More than a week ago, PAL announced
the retrenchment this November of 117 employees, all working at domestic
airports all around the country.

Today PALEA is once more picketing the PAL main office at the
PNBBuilding in Macapagal Boulevard. In last week’s protest,
some one hundred PALEA members with a contingent from the militant Partido
Manggagawa (PM) picketed PAL’s main office and also its offices in Nichols at
the Airport Road

PALEA revealed that the mass actions are the start of a
renewed campaign to oppose contractualization and outsourcing. It will continue
on to PALEA’s 69th year anniversary on September 21 and then escalate
in November in time for the APEC summit.

“The new round of layoffs is another wave of
contractualization. Regular unionized workers are being replaced with
contractual employees who will be paid less in wages and benefits,” insisted
Gerry Rivera, PALEA president and PM vice chair.

He added that “Last September 2, PAL sent a formal notice of
separation due to redundancy to PALEA. But in truth, no redundancy will transpire
since the positions will not be vacated; workers to be retrenched will be
replaced by new employees from so-called service providers. Also in some cases,
employees served by the notice of separation were immediately replaced by
contractual workers.”

Aside from blasting the latest layoffs, PALEA is also
calling for the opening of collective bargaining negotiations and the full
implementation of a settlement agreement that ended the dispute over the last
mass retrenchment in 2011.

No collective bargaining negotiation between PAL and PALEA
has happened since 1998 when a 10-year CBA suspension was imposed. After a
two-year fight, PALEA and PAL forged a deal to settle the labor dispute of 2011
yet some 600 retrenched members have not been re-employed as provided for in
the agreement.

“PAL has given no clear criteria in implementing the
supposed redundancy program except to announce the separation benefits. In fact,
we suspect that most of the regular PAL workers to be retrenched may just be
rehired as contractual employees by the service provider since they possess the
skill set needed for the job. Meaning this is a contractualization scam similar
to the 2011 outsourcing program that affected more than 2,000 workers.”

Further Rivera argued that the latest round of layoffs is
another expression of PAL owner Lucio Tan’s “no union policy.” He called for
the solidarity of the labor movement and allied groups for PALEA’s continuing
fight for regular employment.

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Our Vision

Our dream is a world that gives due importance to the role of the working class and respects the dignity of labor. A social order where the working men and women of the world live together in peace, harmony and progress.Our aspirations lie in the emancipation of labor. A government that is truly of the workers, by the workers and for the workers.

Our hopes rest in a future where social progress thrives not for the benefit of a few people but for the development and richness of the entire humankind. A society that is free from the chains of wage slavery and where oppression does not exist.

Our Mission

Forge the unity of the workers into an independent working class party to organize them as a potent political force in social transformation towards the advancement and protection of labor from the scourge of globalization, establishment of a genuine workers’ government and the emancipation of the working class from capitalist exploitation and wage slavery.

Workers Unite!

The working class is the most important class in society. But, labor will only be a force to reckon with at a time when labor assumes the responsibility of leading the struggle to a decent living - free from exploitation of the propertied elite.

The time has come to rally every underprivileged sector of the society, to take the bull by the head and confront the issues of today. The working class must take an active role in every political exercise presented. The backbone of the independent party must be comprised of the working class with the other marginalized sectors in solidarity.

We must organize politically.

This is our own challenge and we must vow not to shirk from it.

Our future is in our hands, in our unity, in our struggle, in our party.